Water toilets or water closets have a water storing receptacle, called a water tank, which is attached to a toilet bowl. Periodically, waste is removed from the toilet bowl by flushing, in which water is allowed to drain from the tank through the bowl and into a waste pipe. In order to work however the toilet bowl must be connected to the waste pipe by fluid carrying conduits. Typically the toilet will sit flat on the floor and connect with a water closet outlet flange. The water closet outlet flange in turn connects with conduits leading to the waste water drain.
Typically such a toilet flange includes a conduit portion for passing the waste fluids through the floor upon which the toilet sits, a number of openings to fasten the flange to the floor, and other openings to attach the toilet bowl to the flange itself. Additionally, there may be an appropriate seat for a toilet seal which typically may be made either from wax or relatively high-density foam.
Toilets are located in the bathroom in accordance with interior decorating aesthetics of the bathroom. The location of the toilet will of course determine the location of the toilet bowl discharge and hence the outlet flange. However, in making openings through floors there is some likelihood that the toilet bowl opening will be in an awkward or inconvenient place. An example would be where the toilet discharge opening is directly above a floor beam. To overcome such problems there have been provided, in the past, offset flanges for toilet bowls. An example of such an offset flange is U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,836 which issued on Jul. 6, 1976 to Lewis B. Izzi Sr.
This prior offset flange attempts to overcome the problems associated with positioning of the toilet bowl outlet pipe by positioning the conduit at one end of the flange adjacent one lateral edge of the flange. In this way, the toilet bowl outlet pipe can be positioned adjacent to a beam or tight against a wall or other obstacle without much inconvenience.
However, a problem with this prior device is that even though it provides some flexibility in close positioning of the fall conduit of the flange itself adjacent to a floor beam, because the outlet of the fall conduit is straight down, there is only limited flexibility. For example, such prior fittings maximum offset of one and a half or one and three quarter inches which cannot be exceeded. Further, any horizontal offset to the waste pipe requires a fall length, (typically 1/4 per foot) thus the low point of the outlet below the flange is magnified as a function of distance. Finally, it can be difficult and awkward to secure connector elbows to the outlet conduit if it is cramped against a floor joint.